Pro mastering tutorial for simply a better sounding master - volume 2

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DarkRed

New member
In this pro mastering tutorial I am going to reveal a pro mastering technique you can use in order to achieve a better sounding final master.

You may or may not know that every set of speakers or headphones have a gain sweet spot. When you find this sweet spot on the right reference mix, it feels amazing, the sound is so sweet and vital!

This is one key to great monitoring, to capture the voltage/signal level of that gain sweet spot and during the mastering session have that dialed in, so that you can tune the song against that precise playback level. Mastering inside of this "vital" gain window is key to achieving a great sound. When you find the sweet spot you might have found it with some hardware fader/knob set to some very specific hard to recall setting so that you don't exactly know how to re-position it to re-gain that specific setting. You can solve that by using a digital meter and re-calibrate the output volume against that digital meter, which shows the signal level in terms of fixed digits.

What I do prior to a mastering session, is that I tune the monitoring volume to this very precise setting, then I play the reference mix at this volume from start to finish, since the sound is so incredibly sweet it gets me in a good mood, so when I start the mastering session I'm very excited to master great sounding music like this... At that point I have the great sound well memorized, so my mastering moves can be validated against that, which helps a lot.

But the way I understand this is that it kind of tunes myself before I start to tune something else. When I play my particular reference material at this gain sweet spot and focus hard on the beauty of the music, man it's like the music re-arranges stuff in my heart, it is an amazing feeling actually. It makes me feel really alive, fulfilled and awake, it's awesome! You should really discover this if you haven't, because this is something that will boost your energy a lot and give you really nice inspiration prior to starting any mastering session! You have to be in tune before you can make the music in tune.
 
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To be clear, you're talking about setting the monitoring volume with an outboard meter (if you need to), not recalibrating all system meters for each new session, yes?

Just remember that if the "sweet spot" is a lot more than an average 80dB of spl, it might do more harm than good, as your ears will get roached a lot faster and you will not be able to trust them, forcing more frequent breaks due to ear fatigue. Everything sounds great (for awhile) at high volume; always check your mixes and masters at various volumes on at least a few different sets of speakers and some headphones, and use your reference material as reference. "A-Bing with the mind" is not really a recommended strategy.

GJ
 
rhythmgj said:
To be clear, you're talking about setting the monitoring volume with an outboard meter (if you need to), not recalibrating all system meters for each new session, yes?

Just remember that if the "sweet spot" is a lot more than an average 80dB of spl, it might do more harm than good, as your ears will get roached a lot faster and you will not be able to trust them, forcing more frequent breaks due to ear fatigue. Everything sounds great (for awhile) at high volume; always check your mixes and masters at various volumes on at least a few different sets of speakers and some headphones, and use your reference material as reference. "A-Bing with the mind" is not really a recommended strategy.

GJ
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Thanks, yes I am aware of all of this too, but I kind of start the way I mentioned and try to get as far as possible, then I take a break and when I come back I usually move on to more advanced monitoring. My ears are used to quite loud volume and I am quite well aware of when a break is required. But this technique always seems to push me in the right direction with every mastering project, so I feel it really does play an important role in my overall mastering. Usually I find the sweet near where it is pretty loud but without getting unpleasant. Do you do something similar or are you focusing more on just keeping the ear fatigue low?

BTW. I am adding certain visuals too when I playback the reference mix at the gain sweet spot, that I find is important as well. My focus is on the inner vibe, I want my whole body to vibrate and breathe great music when I start the mastering session. It's all about the music. For some reason, usually when I do this "ritual", it is as if the body naturally wants to sigh sighs of relief, so I do so, I think that breathing helps me too. Then when I find that inner vibe I am looking for I close my eyes and let the body move to the music precisely like it wants (the drums are the main contributor to those movements). I come out of that rush like a new person, it is cool. There is something magical about it all...
 
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Absolutely. We all have our "rituals." I tend to listen intently (music or even conversation) with my eyes closed; I want to block out any other stimuli.

In general, I try not to monitor over 85 dB period, except maybe in very short spurts; it is counter-productive physiologically and emoto-psychologically. I may be a bit more, "chronologically experienced" than you are, I'm not sure, but with age, we need to be ever more mindful of keeping the ears in good shape. But I also learned long ago, from experience, before reading about it all much later on-- medium to low volume is better most of the time. In any case, you want your mix to make sense at all volumes. But I used to do a lot of work in a big traditional studio with giant sofetted far-field Ureis in the wall in front of the console... Believe me, it all sounded great-- there, at that volume. Until you couldn't take any more. Not always so elsewhere on different set-ups at different volumes.

Monitoring at reasonable volumes has allowed me to second guess mix decisions a lot less.
The mastering engineers that I know (not the ones responsible for the "volume wars") feel the same way. YMMV (for now... but eventually it will all catch up to you).

GJ
 
Literally every professional mix/master engineer of note (whose work can be checked) that I have ever heard say anything about this argues that monitors are supposed to sound objective not good.

Monitors have a sweet spot in the sense that they have a range at which they are designed to be as linear as possible... but that, again, is objectivity.


I suspect you're over-validating your subjective experience and tarting it up with words like "voltage".
 
rhythmgj said:
Absolutely. We all have our "rituals." I tend to listen intently (music or even conversation) with my eyes closed; I want to block out any other stimuli.

In general, I try not to monitor over 85 dB period, except maybe in very short spurts; it is counter-productive physiologically and emoto-psychologically. I may be a bit more, "chronologically experienced" than you are, I'm not sure, but with age, we need to be ever more mindful of keeping the ears in good shape. But I also learned long ago, from experience, before reading about it all much later on-- medium to low volume is better most of the time. In any case, you want your mix to make sense at all volumes. But I used to do a lot of work in a big traditional studio with giant sofetted far-field Ureis in the wall in front of the console... Believe me, it all sounded great-- there, at that volume. Until you couldn't take any more. Not always so elsewhere on different set-ups at different volumes.

Monitoring at reasonable volumes has allowed me to second guess mix decisions a lot less.
The mastering engineers that I know (not the ones responsible for the "volume wars") feel the same way. YMMV (for now... but eventually it will all catch up to you).

GJ
Click to expand...

I think this is quite optimal overall, but I also think it depends on the amp speaker combo where exactly the sweet spot is and that in general the sweet spot does not tend to be at low volumes. The reason why I believe the sweet spot is important is because I think a linearity/flatness max is reached in the frequency response at that level, which means that it becomes good to mix against for achieving a good balance.
 
MarcDHall said:
I suspect you're over-validating your subjective experience and tarting it up with words like "voltage".
Click to expand...

I don't think you gain much by this speculation, I think it can distract you also when there might be things you can learn and benefit from.
 
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